February 16, 2004
According to this effusive New Age guide, vibes--intuitions, gut feelings, bodily twinges, meaningful coincidences, the sixth sense--are the key to a spiritually fulfilled life. Drawing on anecdotes from her psychic consultancy, Choquette (Diary of a Psychic) contends that vibes are significant indicators of both peril and profit. They can signal upcoming crises and health problems, warn of the covert malevolence of others, lead to romantic and career opportunities, open channels to guardian angels and other deities and even help pick stocks. She offers a grab-bag of New Age therapeutics to help readers tune into their vibes, including diet and exercise tips, meditation and aromatherapy techniques, little art projects to sharpen intuition and a"green fire" ceremony in which old, stale vibes are purged. Choquette's theory involves a kind of spiritual electromagnetism (readers should"raise their vibration enough to tune in to higher frequencies of energy"), but really concerns the division between"five-sensory people," who can be egomaniacal control freaks, and"six-sensory people," who"go with the flow." Instead of leading cautious, regimented and rationalistic lives, readers should be adventurous, impulsive,"light" and"fluid," secure in the belief that their vibes emanate from a beneficent Universe. Choquette skates chattily over the New Age metaphysics and proffers a stream of pleasant anecdotes about prudently heeded vibes with convenient or life-changing consequences. Like-minded readers will find her own vibe warmly reassuring.